So as you will have noticed its been a good few months since my last blog post, life got much busier and I found myself taking on a number of new projects and ideas. Now winter is upon us I have time to catch up on painting and blogging, starting with GWs recent changes in behaviour that have gotten me looking back at their franchise;
Some time ago, we heard a report from an investors meeting whereby GW announced that they were a models company, not a games one, despite their name and product. Since this controversial statement GW has made a drastic u-turn under their new leadership and i'm once again looking at their franchise in awe.
Getting into the Hobby
The entry level to the hobby has always been high, given the time and money required (not to mention the skillset) to get into it, many falter early on in the hobby. GW has historically relied on its existing customer base to recruit new blood, using only the 2 player starter sets as an incentive to get started into the hobby.
Now look back over the last 2 years. Age of Sigmar came out with essentially out of the box rules, whilst the models were really high quality, the ruleset was inviting (unlike 40k and Fantasy). Age of Sigmar received a lot of criticism from existing players, but ultimately this game will serve as an entry into the hobby.
GW has been eyeing up smaller games that are more fast paced and can be played more frequently than your average game of 40k, with smaller rulesets to bring in new players. Look first at their numerous board games, some successful, some not so much. Games like Betrayal at Calth were mostly overlooked due to the box value, customers found themselves buying the game for the miniatures, however having had a few games of this myself I am amazed at how simple GW were able to make a 40k themed ruleset. Now look at their upcoming releases, Blood Bowl and Space Hulk are being released again in time for the Christmas shopping.I have to be honest, I also bought Betrayal at Calth to start a new Iron Warriors force and saw the box for cheap marines. However having looked over the remainder of the contents I printed out a number of Marine pictures from GWs site, laminated them and stuck them on bases. This was to allow myself and others to play the board game, as well as abuse the box for miniatures, and I would love GW to provide cardboard alternatives, however I don't see that happening somehow.
Above I have looked at GWs game design and inviting in new players through the ruleset, now lets look at the miniatures. Blood Bowl is being re-released once more and it's worth looking at the miniatures. Not only are the models snap-fit, but the plastics are coloured in the box. This means that customers can assemble the miniatures with ease and get on with the game without having to paint and glue miniatures. That is massive for GW when it comes to bringing in new blood.
FAQs, these were always internal questions that were raised and answered in an FAQ until of course GW stopped updating them a few years back. After a long and quiet spell, GW started asking for questions one faction at a time on their facebook page, then released draft FAQs for the community to look over and provide feedback. Now GW have begun to release the finalised FAQs after taking onboard the community feedback.
Things are looking up for GW, and now there's a new Chaos Legions book on the horizon i'll definitely be keeping an eye on things.
For my next article i'll be going over one of the games i've started playing over the past few months, Frostgrave.
Until next time, Happy Wargaming,
Peak Wargamer Aaron
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